Traditional authentication strategies include authenticating an account holder into an electronic account (e.g., electronic banking account) held at a server maintained by a network entity by prompting the account holder to input a predetermined password, and/or a dynamic one-time password, and/or predetermined answers to one or more questions, etc., into a computing device that is connected to a network. Anybody other than the account holder who gains access to these passwords or answers may be able to access the account holder's account and make fraudulent transactions associated with the account holder's account. Therefore, there is a need for entities that have a presence on networks such as the Internet to find new mechanisms to authenticate account holders into their accounts.
In order to access a banking account at a physical automated teller machine (ATM), an account holder is usually required to: 1) insert an ATM card into the machine, and 2) input a passcode associated with the ATM card. There is a need to replicate this ATM authentication process at non-ATM locations (e.g., mobile computing devices) so that: 1) financial institutions can use a single back-end authentication system for authenticating account holders into their accounts, and 2) users can enjoy a similar authentication experience regardless of the mode (e.g., online banking, mobile banking, etc.) of accessing their accounts.